Typically, a technology is known for recognizing characters from a scene image that is input from, for example, the camera installed in a smartphone. In the visual scene captured in a scene image, sometimes there are characters which are actually present but are not visible by remaining hidden. For example, sometimes the characters on a signboard are not visible if the signboard is present at the back of a power pole acting as an obstruction. Moreover, sometimes the characters within a particular range are not visible due to over-exposure or defocusing. However, in the conventional character recognition technology, only the visible characters are treated as the target for recognition. Hence, character recognition is performed without including any hidden characters.
In the case in which the text obtained as a result of performing character recognition is used in various text applications, the missing text attributed to no recognition of the hidden characters could become a major issue. For example, in the case of translating a text obtained as a result of performing character recognition, the missing characters may lead to a major confusion in the analysis thereby possibly leading to a significant decline in the translation accuracy. Moreover, in the case of performing image retrieval based on the text obtained as a result of performing character recognition, the missing characters lead to a decline in the recall rate of the search result. Particularly, in the case of a word-based searching device, the impact is felt in a significant manner. For that reason, there has been a demand for building a new technology in which the text representing a result of performing character recognition is obtained by supplementing the hidden characters.